Friday, October 26, 2012

Shadows Over Vathak: The Doom That Came to Ravenloft?

THE SAVAGE SWORD OF LOVECRAFT

Fantasy Horror’s tough. In classic fantasy games you’ve got people with magic
swords and fiery magic descending into underground lairs to kick monster ass.
How do you actually scare a player besides threatening to take their stuff
away? Shadows Over Vathak presents “A Campaign Setting Book of
Lovecraftian Survival Horror.” If you’re doing fantasy and horror there will be
inevitable comparisons to Ravenloft. Shadows
Over Vathak invites that comparison- presenting elements like vampires,
gothic attire, and pseudo-gypsies. But it wants to be darker than that- does it
succeed?

I should note that while SoV is a Pathfinder product, I’m not a PF
gamer- not really a d20 or 4e person either. So in my review I’m not looking at
the system mechanics, feats, balance, add-ons, or rules. Instead I’m focusing
on Shadows Over Vathak as a sourcebook and setting for playing a fantasy
horror game. What does it offer? Is it interesting? Is it consistent?

PRESENTATION Shadows Over Vathak is 258 pages in pdf form. The book uses the classic
two-column layout with decent text design. The body text font’s a little small-
but it never feels dense. It has several different fonts but the application is
consistent and doesn’t go overboard. The pages have an elaborate grey-scale
background which gets in the way in the corners from time to time. It looks
cool and atmospheric, but also busy. I haven’t tried to print the pages so I’m
not sure how that would impact. SoV is generally readable on PC screen and
tablet. There’s original artwork throughout the book- some of it quite nice.
The art’s uncredited in the book, but the publisher told me it ought to be
listed as “Rick Hershey and Team Fat Goblin.” I’d be curious about some of the
individual credits for the art here. The character art’s quite good and the
monsters are especially disturbing as befits the genre. The writing’s solid,
but there are some typos and clunky sentences throughout. Some of that’s
rulespeak and some of that could be solved by editing for tightness. The book
lacks an index, which is too bad, though the front one-page index should steer
users.

SET UP
The page and a half preliminary material for Shadows Over Vathak is
titled “Never Explain Anything.” That’s an odd statement- but one the authors
hold to in a couple of ways. SoV began as a 24 hour rpg challenge- combining
Lovecraftian/Eldritch horror and Survival horror. The material apparently takes
place in the same world as Steampunk Musha
(which will apparently be coming out in PF form). That takes place on an
isolated island on the world of Vathak, one apparently not riven by the same
forces as the one described in the book. The basic premise is that the rapid
expansion of an Empire caused the release of “Old Ones” who have corrupted the
land. The problem I have here is that the book doesn’t do a great job of
setting the context- when did this happen? how long ago are we talking? Some of
the tone seems to suggest these events are recent, while others that it took
place generations ago. What’s the speed of this threat? Even as you read
further it isn’t clear. There’s a suggestion early on that this will be a
survival horror setting, but it looks much more conventional. The Old Ones look
more like Big Bad with corruption as its forte. These seem to be forces and
creatures which have been operating for many, many generations, rather than a
recent and critical event. I think that needs to be made clearer at the
beginning along with a sense of what the players will actually be doing in the
setting: typical adventuring or something else? Having that information before
plunging into 100+ pages of character creation options would help put that
material in context.

CHARACTERS
The first chapter covers the unique races/ethnicities of Vathak. SoV chooses
not to capitalize the names of the different ‘races’- which I assume is a style
guideline from Pathfinder. It took me a bit to get used to. The book
presents six races- breaking down the basics, in about a page and then moving
to practical matters. These include alternative racial traits, the race as
different classes, and favored class options. I’d have liked a little more
background on the groups- especially for the more marginal and evil tendering
ones. How do those fit within a group? What might drive such people to become
PC types? The six are:

Bhriota: A darker skinned, tribal group who practice ritual
scarification. They worship the Old Ones. The race seems to lift from some of
the more unpleasant aspects of Lovecraft- his association with dark or swarthy
skinned folk with evil and bestial natures. That might be problematic for some
groups. I would like to see some ideas on the challenges of playing a bhriota
character against that type. Cambion: In classic D&D, cambions are half-human/half-demon.
Here they’re a race of people mutated by the taint of ancient evil. Physical
deformity accepted as a sign of corruption. Cambions have a huge set of social
disadvantages against them- essentially being seen by all races as monsters.
I’d like to see some discussion of how that works in the context of an
adventuring party. Dhampir: Child of a vampire father and human mother (and not
apparently the other way around ever). They have some disadvantages associated
with that, but some of that can be bought off with alternative traits. These
aim for more gothic horror than Lovecraftian.Romni: The gypsy race of the Vathak setting. They have some
negative social limitations, but nothing as severe as the cambion. Romni who
interact with outsiders are seen as unclean for the rest of their lives-
putting some real obstacles to plots in their way. Svirfneblin: Sinister gnomes, depicted in the illustrations with
a generally oriental appearance. They live deep underground close to the
horrors invading the world. Vindari: The most wide-spread and imperious of the human races.
Their invasion seems to have triggered off the bad stuff--they are closest to
the typical human of other fantasy games.

The book also has some notes on using the standard fantasy races- with a twist.
Most dwarves, elves, gnomes, and haflings, have been exterminated or enslaved-
usually by the Vindari. It adds another layer of complexity to the question:
how can these characters get along without killing each other?

As with any sourcebook of this kind, soV offers some new classes:Apostle: Lawful good servants of The One True God. Looks like a
compromise between cleric and paladin.Blade Slinger: Speedy throwing experts. Eldritch Conjuror: Spell user messing with the dark arts and
slowly being corrupted and driven insane by them. Yet another way to make your
party divisive. Some interesting NPC ideas here, moreso than PC. I like that
they get “Idols” to worship and invoke. Rifleer: A gunslinger, but with a rifle.Sword Dancer: Speedy sword experts.

The section which follows looks at all of the standard classes as well as the
new ones presented. It talks about how those fit within the setting. It also
offers a new archetype for each on, with various mechanical differences and
additions. Some of these sound pretty cool- and there’s a useful amount of
non-system discussion here. The game throws a lot of scattered ideas, requiring
the reader to assemble their own sense of the world. If you’re looking to adapt
the material, that presents something of an obstacle. New feats, equipment,
weapons, armor, wondrous items, and spells follow. This mechanical and
character material takes up roughly the first half of the book- up through page
135.

WORLD
SoV next moves on to present the lands of Vathak- following the conventional
gazetteer approach. It begins with a page on the days of the week and some
holidays, and then launches into a few pages on each of the lands of the continent.
Each land begins with a brief history, again with no specific dates or sense of
when these histories occurred. Is this generations ago or yesterday? There are
some scattered date references in the other material of the section, but
confuses the set up. The nation entry has two major parts. First it goes
through all of the cities- with mechanical and demographic notes, followed by a
paragraph or two of background. Then it offers a paragraph or two about the
land in general and the important locations within it (like forests or rivers).
Each region has a set of regional traits, offering benefits for having come
from there. There’s also a smallish map and usually a sidebar with a unique
trait for the land. The material here focuses on volume over depth- going
through the six lands in about thirty pages. That sets up the sandbox, but
makes it hard to see the whole of the setting.

Next, fourteen pages present the religions of Vathak. This breaks significantly
from most classic fantasy rpg backgrounds. On the one hand, you have the Church
of the One True God. That’s a wealthy, rigid, and organized group with
influence across the continent. It has sub-orders and divisions, but for the
most part looks like the classic pre-Reformation Catholic Church. They have
inquisitors, of course, and present an interesting contradiction. Most players
I know dislike large-scale authority, but the alternative in this case is even
less palatable: the cults of the Old Ones. Several gods and cults are
presented, ranging from Chaotic neutral or Chaotic Evil. Those who follow these
paths are insane- the classic bad guys from a CoC campaign. This offers some
interesting and relatively well-drawn ideas for opposition in a Vathak
campaign.

One of the most potentially interesting sections follows, where the authors lay
out how to actually GM a horror fantasy campaign. They begin by setting out
themes- elements to put into play and particular genres. In each case, I wanted
a little more discussion- especially some analysis, hooks, suggestions for how
to make these abstract suggestions work in this setting. From that brief
discussion of horror, it suggests typical fantasy adventure themes (trade,
disaster, journey) and provides a decent random adventure generator. This
actually takes up several pages, building up the starting plot and then
randomizing parts for the acts of the story.

From the general GMing discussion, the book moves to some system tools the GM
can use to manipulate the players and story. Trust is introduced as a concept-
with the players gaining and losing reputation and acceptance. Thankfully the
mechanics are fairly loose for that. Next, as to be expected in a game of
Lovecraftian horror, there’s a discussion of fear and insanity. The latter
works pretty much like Call of Cthulhu, with PCs having sanity points
and losing them for encountering the weird. It doesn’t do a great job of
considering the players’ backgrounds or even the fact that adventurers might
have a higher resistance to such shocks. There’s mention of treatment in
asylums- a concept that would have been worth exploring. What do those look
like in a fantasy world? What do they look like in Vathak? Is there a different
stigma attached to madness given the presence and influence of the Old Ones?
Sanity can also be lost through forbidden tomes, like the handful presented in
the text. Seven pages cover weather and five cover diseases- two natural
phenomenon useful to creating a sense of dread. The section finishes up with
six pages on creating villages- this feels incomplete, as if they had a bigger
section and cut it down.

The book finishes up with a large section on monsters and encounters (pages
216-253). After talking about common creatures and how they might appear in the
setting, SoV launches into some super-creepy stuff. The seventeen monsters
offered here look particularly unnatural- with evocative illustrations for each
one. There’s a weird mismatch here though. Some of them are classic corrupt and
icky beasts. Others are clearly pastiches and adaptations of Cthulhoid
creatures- essentially Mythos beasts with the serial numbers filed off. But
then the book also includes the explicitly Lovecraftian Mi-Go. Why would you do
that? If you’re going to include one direct Mythos beastie, why not include all
of them? Why not have Old Ones and cults refer to Nyarlethotep and Yog-Sothoth?
Or you could tell the GM that’s what’s going on, but conceal it from the
players. Regardless I now know what it takes to craft a Mi-Go Brain Cylinder
(Craft Wondrous Item, gentle repose, magic jar, 7 ranks in Heal;
and 2,500 gp).

OVERALL
I’m of two minds about Shadows Over Vathak. On the one hand, I enjoyed
reading it. It has some clunky bits and I skipped through a lot of the
mechanics. But the cool details, interesting ideas, and useful material kept me
moving along. I like the Ravenloft-done-darker vibe from it. Some of the
ideas for archetypes and groups were especially rich and could be lifted out
for other games. On the other hand, I’m not sure the book as a whole holds
together. It wants to be Lovecraftian, but doesn’t go all the way. It would
like to be a useful for running fantasy horror, but the actual discussion of
what that means- and how that fits in a dungeon-crawling world- only takes up a
couple of pages. There’s clearly an attempt to keep the history open- lacking
dates- but I think you need to have some better context. At the very least,
talk about the implications of setting the coming of the Old Ones ten years ago
versus a century. It may be that’s not the intent of the authors- they may have
a specific sense of the chronology. If so, then they need to go back and make
that more explicit for the readers. I’d like to see more about what a Vathak
campaign looks like- some advice and guidance on kinds of arcs. More importantly,
how should you deal with a party likely be at each other’s throats given the
class and race choices. There’s a lot of untapped potential here- ideas thrown
out without connection or rich development.

BUT again, that’s coming from someone who wouldn’t use this for Pathfinder.
So any judgment I’m making has to be taken in that context. It may well be that
the PF mechanics and ideas turn the supplement up to 11- I’ll be curious to
read a review by someone coming from that direction. I also have to say that
the phrase “survival horror” has a pretty distinct meaning to me- implying
post-apocalypse or death world scenarios- civilization has collapsed or been
driven to the brink. Obviously zombie games fit into this. Shadows Over
Vathak doesn’t feel like survival horror.

I spoke recent to someone who ported their Pathfinder game over to Strands of Fate.
Nick said that had been pretty easy for them. I suspect if I were to run SoV I
would use something like that. I would keep the nature of the game somewhat
away from the players. The names of the Old Ones presented would be a cover-
each would actually be one of the Mythos Gods and discovering that would be a
meta-game moment for the players. I’d also probably emphasize the survival
horror elements. Either the coming of the Old Ones would be more recent or
something would be happening now that suggests there’s about to be an
apocalypse.